Monday, March 24, 2008

Do you have TOO MUCH EASTER CANDY?

Easter is second only to Halloween when it comes to candy overload.  My son ate more candy yesterday on Easter than he has in his entire (albeit short) life!  So what to do on the day after?
First, I emptied out all the candy.  All wrapped candy went into a large Ziploc (or more than one if necessary!), and the lose candy (random M&M's, Jelly Beans, Malted Egg Balls, etc) went into another.  All candy in one place, no secret stashes!

What to do next depends on the age of the kids in your home.  
If you only have young children who don't really understand that the candy fairy dumped pounds of candy on them yesterday...
Decide how much candy you want your little one to have - there is no right or wrong answer, and none is OK, too!  My son also has a small hallow bunny, so I decided on one piece of wrapped candy per day for this week.  I have set that aside in a baggie with his name - one piece per day, perhaps for a mid-morning snack.  Enough time to let the sugar burn off!

If you have older children who are very aware of the candy in the house....
Decide how much candy you really want them to have each day, and let them pick out what they want to keep.  One to three pieces a day is reasonable.  The amount is not negotiable, but which pieces to keep is their decision.  You'll quickly learn what their favorites are!

So how much for you and the hubby?  Again, this is your decision.  For us, that bag of loose candy that we have is more than enough for this week.  (Four plastic eggs full of M&Ms and a handful of malted egg balls.)  Plus helping our son eat his hallow bunny! If we didn't have the loose candy, I'm thinking no more than two pieces a day for the week is plenty - again, you have to decide how this candy fits into your 80/20 rule!  

Now what do you do with all that extra Easter Candy?  For the wrapped candy.....
  • Send it to work with your hubby!  It really doesn't matter where your husband works, surely there are adults without children there who did not have the Candy Fairy, er, Easter Bunny visit this weekend!
  • Bless your neighbors!  If you have any childless-neighbors, divvy up your remaining wrapped candy into smaller Ziplocs and be a belated Easter Bunny for them.  Maybe they want it, maybe they don't, but it's the gesture that counts.  And it's out of your house!
  • Craigslist or Freecycle!  If you live in any community of size, you may very well have a Craigslist or Freecycle that serves you.  Check out their sites, and post a FREE ad!  Give away your candy to the first person willing to drive to your house.  Worried about the stranger pick-up?  Place your candy in a tied-up grocery sack and leave it on the front porch with that person's name.  
  • Donate it!  I'm not sure candy is the reason food banks were set up, but find a place in town that services the needy.  Food banks, churches, shelters, etc.  Throw in a canned good or two, and I'm sure they'd be happy to take your candy!
  • Throw it away!  As drastic as this may be, if all the options above don't work for you, just throw it away.  The tree-hugger in me doesn't like this idea so much, but honestly, it's candy - there's no nutrition, someone else isn't necessarily better off because they have it instead of you!  
As for the unwrapped, loose candy you may have left over, just throw it away, too.  Children in China are just fine without all that extra candy!

And Next Year?  Plead with your family to give a little less candy and a little more love!

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